The truth is, the Church Basement Ladies series has always been about life. And in life, all good things must come to an end. We at the Old Creamery have lived with these ladies and their pastor for 5 years now and they’ve become like family. We’ve shared their joy at weddings and births and shared their tears over the loss of loved ones. And the events of this installment certainly provide a fitting closure to their journey.

The Ladies have been very, very good to The Old Creamery. Coming into this production nearly 30,000 tickets have been sold to our performances of the first four installments and that’s an amazing number. Two of those hold records at the top of our attendance figures. It’s obvious that you love these ladies as much as we do. And I promise you’ll continue to find great shows in the future that will keep you coming back. An excellent example being our production next spring of the brand new musical Steeple People – a southern gospel comedy - or even this holiday season’s joyous visit to the Catholic church basement for Nuncrackers!

I have to take a moment to thank Curt Wollan not only for his wonderful direction each and every time but for so lovingly creating the series in the first place. And thanks are also in order to Greta and Drew for coming up with such wonderful material time after time.

I also want to pay tribute to the four talented women that I share this stage with. Carrie is the “newcomer” here with only two CBL productions for us (but many, many more across the country) and she has been a pure delight to work with. This is Katie’s third CBL and she has become a dedicated versatile company member here over the course of the last three years in a journey which began because I needed an actress with talent, warmth, and strength to play Beverly back in 2013. Kay Francis has been perfection at mixing Vivian’s stern ways with an always loving heart through four Creamery Basements. And last but not least is my friend Nikki Savitt who by my side has made Mavis so memorable through the entire series here on our stage. I know I’ll work with these women on other projects, but our time in the Basement has been a special one and I’m grateful I’m here with them one more time.

I’ve learned through the years to never say “never”. Maybe the creators will decide there are some other stories to be told. (Mavis says there are!) But for now, the story that began on our stage five years ago is coming to an end. Who knew when we sang that opening number “You’re Closer to Heaven in the Church Basement” that the journey would end here? We will all miss this basement terribly, but we’ve had an amazing time here. And now, as in life we must heed the final words of The Last (Potluck) Supper - “We give thanks. We Praise Him. We move on!”